Starring

Jacques Perrin

Le sous-lieutenant Torrens

Bruno Cremer

L'adjutant Willsdorf

Pierre Fabre

Le sergent Roudier

Manuel Zarzo

Le caporal Perrin

Comments

Synopsis and Comments on La 317e Section In 1954 Vietnam, at the time of Diên Biên Phu, a French unit on patrol under the command of an inexperienced lieutenant is gradually depleted by Vietminh until only an ex-Wehrmacht Alsatian adjutant remains. He is to die, a title informs us, in Algeria in 1960. Semi-documentary in style, this is an effectively low-key appraisal of the difficult choices with which war confronts its soldiers. As so often in Vietnam films the enemy is only glimpsed from a distance, the camera remaining a disembodied observer among the group. Bertrand Tavernier acted as co-writer on the film.